Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), also known as the bottom-up way approach to working with societal groups, focuses on the strengths of communities rather than their weaknesses (Episcopal Relief and Development, n.d.). Many conventional strategies foster community development through working on the deficits, thus, seeing a glass half-empty. On the other hand, ABCD considers a glass as half-full; that is, opportunities in a community. The ABCD approach to enhancing change motivates it to identify as well as empower skills and passions of individuals and societies. Beyond empowering communities and people, it also majors on connecting micro-resources to the macro-environment. ABCD believes that individuals, as well as societal groups, have essential unrecognizable assets. As a result, these assets can transform them. Nonetheless, they lack mobilization, and means of detecting the micro-assets. This paper will explore the five assets and principles in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD).
Five Assets in ABCD
Initially, communities were only seen as people with numerous twisted issues and needs. However, since ABCD came into place, they are recognized as assets and skills. Everyone has exceptional abilities that can transform a society. ABCD groups its assets into five categories that include individuals, associations, institutions, physical assets, and connection (Nurture development, n.d.). The first group is people who have skills who reside in a given area that need to be discovered to bring change in a place. Suppose one prefers to look into their problems, it will only worsen the situation, because one man cannot work alone to solve massive and complex issues. People need to identify the abilities that need motivation to enhance a given area.
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The second category is the association that can be in the form of a club of people with similar interests. Their interests can be used by ABCD to develop their community, since they have already voluntarily identified themselves. Another group is the institutions that are made of paid professionals who are formally organized such as the regime bureaus and private firms, along with learning centers. These resources assist the community to confine valuable assets and create the need for civic responsibility. The fourth category is the physical resources or assets such as buildings, land, space, and money. Notably, these assets can be utilized to drive development (Nurture development, n.d.). The last group is the connections that come in when people interact in exchange for an idea. The people with the abilities to identify and link an individual to another person with ordinary skills or gifts are known as connectors (Nurture development, n.d.).
Five Core Principles of ABCD
There are five main guidelines of ABCD that direct the approach while fostering sustainable-driven development in a community. First, it is the citizen-led principle that focuses on building people of a given area through recognizing their opportunities. Furthermore, it seeks mobilization to develop the communities (Nurture Development, 2017). The second guideline is relationship oriented that focuses on building social connections out of workplaces, especially where there is a hierarchical structure (Nurture Development, 2017). The approach believes that there are untapped gifts in the social world that can boost public progress. Another guideline is asset-based that focuses on the strengths in society to sanction relational power to develop sustainable changes (Nurture Development, 2017). The fourth principle is place-based, which, instead of focusing on significant levels of a nation such as the national level, focuses on communities where it believes untapped resources lies (Nurture Development, 2017). Finally, the last principle is inclusion focused that centers on changing the locals’ attitude towards strangers to generate undefined boundaries to bring in new skills and gifs that will help move the community forward (Nurture Development, 2017).
Conclusion
ABCD is an approach to sustainable-development that focuses on assets and skills in communities rather than the problems surrounding them. Its five main aspects include individuals, associations, institutions, physical assets, and connection. The assets are explored by the ABCD's principles that entail citizen-led, relationship oriented, inclusion focused, asset-based and place-based. The guidelines act as directions in discovering assets that eventually drive change.
References
Episcopal Relief and Development. (n.d.). Asset-Based Community Development. Retrieved from https://www.episcopalrelief.org/what-we-do/asset-based-community-development
Nurture Development. (2017, June 2). Asset-Based Community Development - 5 Core Principles - Nurture Development [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.nurturedevelopment.org/blog/asset-based-community-development-5-core-principles/
Nurture development. (n.d.). Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) - Nurture Development [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.nurturedevelopment.org/asset-based-community-development/
